Camp Bucca detention facility closes

BAGHDAD, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- The Camp Bucca detention facility in Iraq was shuttered Thursday after its last detainees boarded a plane for another detention facility, U.S. officials said.

An Air Force C-17 carrying the last group of 180 detainees left the Basra airport for Camp Cropper in Baghdad, U.S. military officials said in a release.

"As a result of the great working relationship between the government of Iraq and Task Force 134, I'm pleased to say the Camp Bucca detention facility is now closed," said Brig. Gen. David Quantock, the joint task force's commanding general. "We've been working hand in hand with the government of Iraq to coordinate our detainee releases and transfers in accordance with the security agreement, and that teamwork has allowed us to close the Bucca (theater internment facility)."

The camp's closure leaves only two U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq -- Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, and Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad International Airport.

Terms of the agreement, signed in November 2008, state detainee transfers between coalition forces and the Iraqi government must be conducted with arrest warrants or detention orders, the U.S. military said. If detainees don't have arrest warrants or detention orders, they must be released.

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